1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to navigational status indicators, such as maps, and more particularly, to a computerized telecommunications system that permits a user, such as a traveler, to program a navigational course and then to receive dynamically modified audio and visual feedback regarding a present navigational status position while proceeding through the programmed navigational course.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, motorists and other travelers relied on maps or other representations of navigational courses, such as roads or the waterways, to plan a navigational course and to periodically determine their navigational status position en route. Typically, each time the traveler requires an indication of his or her navigational status position, the traveler must: 1) access the correct map; 2) locate on the map the particular route or roadway which represents the route on which the traveler is traveling; and 3) locate the present position on the particular roadway shown on the map, in order to determine the traveler's navigational status position relative to the traveler's point of departure or destination. This conventional process requires concentration and focused attention by the traveler. Consequently, in order to devote the proper concentration and focused attention to this process of reading the map, the traveler usually must take his or her eyes off of the road, as well as take one or both hands off of the steering wheel of his or her vehicle. This necessity puts the traveler in a sometimes unsafe and precarious traveling position. Alternatively, a traveler seeking to avoid an unsafe and precarious traveling position must have somebody present to read the map, which sometimes results in confusion or communication misunderstandings between the parties. As another alternative, the traveler must periodically halt his or her travel to devote full attention to reading the map or asking for directions, thereby losing valuable traveling time.
A need has therefore been felt for a telecommunications system that receives a signal representing a static (fixed) navigational position, wherein this system utilizes the signal when the traveler coincides with the fixed navigational position, in order to modify and thereby dynamically update a previously known navigational status position so that the traveler may be provided with audio and/or visual feedback regarding the traveler's navigational status position, thereby permitting full concentration and focused attention on traveling by eliminating the necessity to view or otherwise stop to concentrate and focus on reading the conventional map for navigational status position.